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Zero-Sum Game

To safeguard the future of public debate, digital newspapers should be zero-rated

News is changing. Just two decades ago, readers learnt of world affairs by leafing through their favourite newspaper. Today the market is much busier, the platforms on which news is delivered more diverse. The Times has adapted with a range of digital offerings including a website, a smartphone app and a tablet edition. Yet wherever our journalism is found, we are still doing what we have for the past two centuries: providing carefully researched reports and analysis, at regular intervals, to help readers understand the world around them. The Times is, always and everywhere, essentially the same newspaper.

So, in a recent court case we argued that our digital editions should be zero-rated for VAT purposes, just as print newspapers are. News UK, which publishes…